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Director wins energy leadership award

Barry B. Edwards, who has served as Catawba County’s Utilities and Engineering Director since 1995, has been named one of the winners of the 2013 Energy Leadership Awards by the Business Journal of Charlotte.

The Business Journal says the award, “recognizes individuals who have played a key role in making the Carolinas a global player in the energy industry.” Edwards is one of ten persons named as winners of the award this year.

Edwards was recognized for overall leadership in the energy industry, but primarily for his vision for the Catawba County EcoComplex. It is a growing system that recovers all useable products and by-products from a group of private and public partners, located in a close-knit defined area in and near the Blackburn Landfill off N.C. 10 West of Newton. A set of partners works together to use each other’s waste products either as a source of energy (electricity, steam, or heat) or as a raw material for the production of their own product (pallets, lumber, compost, brick shapes/art). In addition to these shared relationships, the EcoComplex is also focused on making and using “green” energy and on economic development in Catawba County.

To read more of this story, pick up the Tuesday edition of Catawba County's community newspaper, The Observer News Enterprise, at newsstands throughout the county.